


Imposed exchanges

by Speckofoursource



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Season/Series 06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 17:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19114363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Speckofoursource/pseuds/Speckofoursource
Summary: A platonic moment between the Black Paladins. Contains spoilers for Season 6.





	Imposed exchanges

He traced four longing fingertips across the smooth texture of the yoke, not daring to use his thumb, not risking a full grip on the familiar throttle. Memory was painful enough; he knew her by heart, had mapped her in his mind’s eye. Feedback would only be insufferable. 

Leaning broad shoulders back into the embrace of the seat, he balled his aching fingers into a fist instead and pressed the knuckles against his nose. Breath abandoned him. It even smelled different in here now. If he hadn’t known better, he would have let envy gnaw him to the bone. 

But it was no matter of infidelity. Hadn’t he wanted this for her anyway? For him? He glanced right, the other flight post quite literally beyond his reach now. There was no recalling how that felt. He had never felt it before, he thought wryly. Not truly. 

_You were never mine, were you?_

The intimate union they shared had been so abruptly severed, like his arm. _Twice._

He lowered his head and scratched at the silver hair. Such intimacy bears its marks. 

He once believed it was his destiny to serve her. She loved him, but she was not created to be monogamous. Their time wedded together in that realm was motivated by maternal instinct, by protection, not by loyalty. And now he had been evicted, as offspring from the womb. 

She belonged to no one.

The cockpit was entirely dark with the absence of her glow. She was cold to his touch; he knew it was good. It was time for them to part.

“I owe you,” Shiro said aloud softly. And he meant it for both of them.

A hand found its place on his shoulder. 

Shiro slowly turned to face him, standing a pace behind the cockpit seat. Keith watched him soberly without words. The scar on his right cheek glared hot as a track of unshed tears. 

The Champion heaved a fresh breath on the old the revelation. Such affinity bears its marks. They hadn't time to discuss it.

“I did that to you.” His confession died into a whisper. It was weak, but it was out.

The Black Paladin’s dark eyes betrayed a fleeting pain, and in a moment he knelt before him and tipped his head, acknowledging. Then lifting those somber eyes to the stump of Shiro’s arm, he replied gently, his gaze holding the limb that was no longer there. 

“I did that to you.”

Shiro’s brow raised in concession. “You had to.” 

They shared a quiet moment before Keith braved the question. “Do you remember it?”

He did.

“You... freed me,” Shiro told him instead. _Focus conveys the truth._

Gripped by some sharp emotion, Keith lashed out and seized the right lever, remaining down on his knee. Violet light warmed to life at his touch. As it illuminated the space they shared, shadows leapt about the cockpit, fleeing the onslaught of her radiance.

She _spoke_ , and they both listened, as rapt and still as the first time they each had heard her. And then it struck him: they once had gazed on the indigo majesty of the stars together, back at the Garrison rooftop, a lifetime ago. A cadet, an officer: both moonstruck by those celestial bodies. 

They had been _here_ before, relating life’s taxing blows and unfair directives. She had been a bitter mistress. And now she had ruthlessly pulled them full circuit and imposed an exchange of place.

“You freed _me_ ,” Keith stressed, recalling those same constellations, those same conversations, his eyes far away. 

Shiro felt the ironic smile spread wide despite himself. It would seem that Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation applied in realms beyond physical science. Aching souls drew each other into their orbits. 

And for every action, a reaction: in this case, displacement.

“I thought I wanted this,” Shiro murmured thoughtfully.

Keith resurfaced from his reflections and stood. “I think you still do.”

He did, it was true. But he no longer desired it the same way. Now he beheld, with innate satisfaction, a perfect soldier standing before him. The flame he feared to smother had not been snuffed out after all. Rather the spark had caught, and now it was...

Incandescent. 

It was Keith’s time to shine.

“Not really,” Shiro decided, contentment in his tone. “Not anymore.”


End file.
